Rewriting Marginality: Rereading Women In Select Assamese Short Stories

Abstract

It is generally seen that women constitute part of the margin of Indian culture, and pertinently that in North-East India, which again exists on the socio-political margins of our big country.  Needless to acknowledge that women’s constraints and capacities are found to be equally trans-cultural. The interest of this article is focused on representation of women in the short story writings of Assamese writers who are of respectable standing in the literary scene of this region.

The stories selected are not to be construed as representative samples; nevertheless, these are a range of powerful short stories written by major Assamese authors in our modern times. In these stories women characters are portrayed as central to the story lines. Most of them are perceived as self-conscious individuals confronting or answering the prevalent social norms that suppress or exploit them physically, socially and morally.